Los Angeles archdiocese celebrates as Jubilee year dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe begins

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is home to the only known relic of St. Juan Diego’s tilma in the U.S., is joining Catholics around the world in observing a special Jubilee Year celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

The jubilee year began Oct. 12, marking the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the new Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, according to an emailed archdiocesan press release. It is also the anniversary of the transfer of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe — which has been preserved unexplainably for nearly 500 years since appearing on the tilma — to the new shrine in 1976. On the occasion of these anniversaries, Pope Leo XIV granted the Guadalupan Jubilee Year, thus establishing unique spiritual opportunities for the faithful who celebrate it. 

“This is a great Jubilee,” Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles said in the release. “Now is the hour to live our faith with attentive hearts, with new seriousness and new joy; to go deeper in prayer and study, to grow in our knowledge and love for Jesus and His mother; and to embrace more fully our responsibility to spread the faith and bring others to Jesus.” 

“Now is also the hour for a new commitment to the continental mission, to the evangelization of the Americas, beginning in our own country,” he added. 

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angeles in downtown Los Angeles is home to the relic of St. Diego’s tilma, and is exposed for veneration every day, according to the release.

In celebration of the jubilee, which falls on the 495th anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s apparition, the archdiocese has several events planned, including an archdiocesan pilgrimage to the basilica in Mexico City where the tilma is kept. 

The pilgrimage will take place on the first weekend of July in 2027, according to the release. Archbishop Gomez will celebrate two Masses of Thanksgiving during the Pilgrimage, one at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and another at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. 

The archdiocese holds an annual pilgrimage honoring Our Lady of Gualupe, whose feast day is Dec. 12. This year, more than 300 faithful participated in a pilgrimage to Mexico City with Archbishop Gomez, who presented 45,000 prayer intentions invoking Our Lady of Guadalupe’s intercession, according to the release. Many of the intentions were collected during the 2025 pilgrimage. 

A pilgrimage bringing images of Our Lady and St. Juan Diego is already underway this year through the archdiocese, visiting 70 parishes and several Catholic cemeteries. The release stated that the pilgrimage marks spiritual preparation for the oldest religious procession in the city, set to take place Dec. 6. 

This procession honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe was established in 1931 by Mexican Catholics who fled the Mexican government’s persecution during the Cristero War, according to the release.

Beyond the planned events, spiritual opportunities are available throughout the Guadalupan Jubilee Year. 

A plenary indulgence is offered for Catholics who visit “with devotion and a contrite spirit the sacred house of St. Mary of Guadalupe and participate in a liturgical act or spend time in prayer at the basilica,” the release stated. The faithful must also observe the usual conditions required for a plenary indulgence: praying for the Pope’s intentions, receiving Communion, reciting the Creed, and going to Confession.